Clone yourself and fight the bad guy!

For the first time ever in the electronic gaming industry, PC gamers will be able to capture their 3-D image, customise their clone and upload it into popular games.

3Q Inc., a developer of 3-D human form capture technology for the electronic gaming industry, has launched its ‘Q Clone Generator’ in Babbage’s Etc. LLC’s stores in San Jose, Seattle and Dallas in the United States.

For the first time ever in the electronic gaming industry, PC gamers will be able to capture their 3-D image, customise their clone and upload it into popular games such as Quake III Arena and Half-Life Opposing Force.

With previous 3-D image-capture techniques, any slight movements from the subject during the capture process drastically impacted the accuracy and quality of the final image.

The new approach employs projecting a random light pattern on the subject and capturing an image with precisely synchronised digital cameras set at various angles. Using different wavelength light between the geometry and texture, it’s possible to obtain a very accurate texture map when applied to the surface data.

Since any slight movements of the subject during image acquisition will impact the quality of the 3-D points in space, the Clone Generator captures the surface data in 0.008 seconds.

‘This technology has been in development for more than five years and is already in use by the medical community. It is now set to revolutionize the home entertainment and gaming experience,’ said Chris Lane, CEO of 3Q. ‘For the first time ever, gamers will be able to walk into their local Babbage’s Etc. store and walk out with their 3-D virtual clone identity, which contains their game-specific personality. It’s truly going to change the approach to home entertainment.’

‘3Q’s technology is exciting for the electronic gaming community because it enables players to immerse themselves into their favourite games,’ said David Eddings, director of promotions at Gathering of Developers, Inc., a developer-driven computer and video game publisher.

‘This technology will take games such as Quake III and Rune to the next level. The biggest impact, however, will be in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) such as the upcoming Shadowbane game. In these types of games players build unique online identities in a persistent universe. Already, some MMORPG players view their online personas as living, breathing characters. 3Q’s technology further bridges the gap between virtual and reality.’